Nietzsche and the Dionysian argues that the shuddering mania of the affect associated with Dionysus in Nietzscheâs early work runs as a thread through his thought and is linked to an originary interruption of self-consciousness articulated by the philosophical companion. In this capacity, the companion can be considered a âmask of Dionysusâ, or one who assumes the singular role of the transmitter of the most valuable affirmative affect and initiates a compulsion to respond which incorporates the otherness of the companion. In the context of such engagements, Nietzsche envisages âDionysianâ or divine âmadnessâ within an optics of life, through which an affirmative ethics can be thought. The ethical response to the philosophical companion requires an affirmation of the plurality of life, formulated in the imperatives to be âtrue to the earthâ and âbecome who you areâ. Such an ethics, compelled by the Dionysian affect, grounds any future for humanity in the affirmation of the earth and life.
1 The Dionysian as an Ethical Sense
â1âShuddering and Ethics
â2âThe Dionysian Mania
â3âPessimism and Consolation
2 Creature and Creator
â1âSatyr and Chorus
â2âThe Dionysian Companion as Compulsion
â3âThe Look of Eternity
â4âThe Dithyrambic Dramatist and Transmissibility
3 The Way of the Wanderers
â1âLeaving Bayreuth, Finding Bayreuth
â2âThe Great Separation
â3âSimiles of Time and Becoming
â4âThe Dance with Life
â5âThe Shadow of Ambivalence
4 The Weight of Affirmation
â1âThe Twofold Will
â2âThe Thread of the Body
â3âSoul, Self, Spirit
â4âThe Eternal Recurrence Test
â5âRedeeming the Past
â6âThe Spiritualization of the Passions
â7âThe Spiritualization of Justice
5 The Possibility of Self-Overcoming
â1âPractical Spiritualized Values
â2âEvaluation and the Order of Rank
â3âWill to Power and Passivity
â4âWill to Power Engaging Resistance
â5âThe Value of Resistance
â6âIrresistible Resistance
6 Towards a Practical Ethics of the Earth and Life
â1âThe Blessed Isles
â2âThe Gift-Giving Virtues
â3âThe New Laws
â4âLearning to Laugh
â5âNightwandering
â6âAdvocates of the Future
7 Working for the Future
â1âWe Hyperboreans
â2âAn Allegory of Eternity
â3âThe Human Sublime
â4âThe Dionysian (Once More)
â5âConversations on Naxos
â6âThe Satyr Chorus of Humanity